...It took longer for the Rogers Post bats to get going. Clarke walked four batters in the first three innings, twice on 3-2 pitches, but that was all Rogers Post could muster for base runners early on.

"He's a very good pitcher," Rogers Post manager Dave Jordan said. "He's a veteran guy, and I think our guys were really kind of taking a lot of info on him as they were coming back in the dugout. Talking about him, what he was throwing, different counts and stuff like that, moving all his pitches."

Before Rogers Post stepped to the plate in the fourth, Locke Mills (2-1) added to its lead. Brown got two quick outs, but Nick L'Heureux hit a two-out single down the third-base line, moved to second on a balk, and scored Blake Letourneau's single to right.

SACO & BIDDEFORD SAVINGS 11, BONANZA 1: Carter Edgerton had three hits, scored three times and drove in a run as Saco & Biddeford Savings (2-0) beat Bonanza of Sanford (0-2) in six innings at Biddeford.

Owen Sullivan added two hits, and Colin Lavigne hit a two-run double during a four-run fourth that gave Saco & Biddeford Savings a 7-1 lead.

PARIS — A pair of RBIs certainly helped alleviate Rodney Bean’s pain after he slammed into and flipped over Franklin first baseman Corey Rogers in the fourth inning of an American League baseball game.

Bean sacrificed life and limb when he drilled an infield sacrifice that brought home two much-needed runs in the fourth inning and allowed Bessey Motors (1-1) to shake off the Flyers (1-3) with a 3-0 win at the Don Gouin Athletic Conference on a warm Thursday afternoon.

“Running into the first baseman didn’t feel very good,” Bean, a second baseman, said. “But the two RBIs felt good.

AUBURN — Very rarely do baseball games turn from pitching duels to slugfests as quickly, and dramatically, as Thursday night’s Roger’s Post and Pastime matchup.

Through four innings, Rogers had a total of one hit and just five base runners, while Pastime tallied three hits and five base runners of its own. Both sides scored just one run. It was looking as if both pitchers would go the distance, waiting for the other to crack. Instead, Pastime eked out a 9-8 victory on the road and ended Rogers’ unbeaten start.

The principles are the same, though the details are different. The maximum amount of pitches in a game is now 120, compared to 110 for high school. Legion pitchers need a day of rest after 30 pitches, versus 20 in high school, and they’ll need two days off after 45 (39 in high school), three days off after 60 (65 in high school) and four days off after 75 (95 in high school).

“With some of these kids playing on teams that went deep into the playoffs, and the arms come in a bit tired, I did see that last year a little bit,” Augusta Elks coach Tim Rodrigue said. “If it’s the right thing to do for the young arms, then that’s what we should be doing.”